And nary an RPG. Well, fine, there's a good number of those, but they're
all PC or ports of PC games. So I assume this month we'll see some strange stuff getting printed in this
column.

Meanwhile, as you all know, we have a new weekend host here. With the whole rabid monkey approach he's
going with, I half expected to have an inbox full of letters along the lines of "PLEASE MAKE THE BAD MAN
GO'WAY!" and such. As is, everyone seems happy and reasonably settled, and the great quest of the replacement
hunt may be at an end. So let me just remove my sword and travelling boots, and settle into a nice relaxing
week of columns.

First of all, don't send any flaming monkeys after me if my spelling is bad.
I live in Sweden and can't help it. And if you were to send those monkeys
after all, I would just have to use my demonic powers to convert the little
hairballs into my minions and send them after you instead.

On to the questions and such!

Why do americans always complain about getting their games so late?
RPG-fanatics in particular. I mean, europeans doesn't get them until much
later, and at least half of the good stuff never gets released here at all.
On top of that, the PAL conversions suck big time with black borders and
sloooooow gameplay thanks to our 50Hz TV standard. I for one am fed up with
it all.

The only good thing about being a swedish rpgamer must be Terranigma for the
SNES which never got a US release. In my opinion it beats every other
action-rpg ever made. And that says a lot. Well, about my taste at least.

Hmmmmm... When I think about it maybe we europeans shouldn't complain so
much either. I mean, think of Australia for instance. They get the games
even later than we do.

Anyhow, what's your take on this whole territorial thing with games? Sorry
for writing such a long letter.

By the way. I think I'm ready for my monkeys now.

/darkpriest - ruler of Säter, Sweden

Googleshng:
I don't see people doing much complaining about having to wait for games... except Xenosaga, and Chrono
games that don't actually exist. I'd chalk it up to not knowing how good they have it really. I mean heck,
before I started running this column, I once believed America got the short end of the RPG stick. People
always make a big deal out of the few games you people get and we don't, and most Americans never get
to hear about the many many many many games you never see. The people who should really complain though
are those who live in england. They get games translated into their language all the time, but frequently
don't get to play them thanks to the evil gremlin of PAL.

RAGE.

So just out of curiosity why did you not enjoy Vagrant Story the only thing I did not enjoy was switching weapons, but magic and items were easy to use, looked great, good battle system, enjoyed the weapon customization, and had a great story. I mean that is pretty much everything I look for in a game and accually I include it a one of my favorite games.

have a nice day

Googleshng:
OK, first off, Vagrant Story looks great on paper, but the thing is, the systems for customization and
combat clearly weren't tested too well. If you're on your 5th plus game and have everything memorized,
it's all well and good, but seeing how there's no way of knowing what a boss will be weak against ahead
of time, and that even if you know, odds are you won't have spent the hour hacking at lizards needed to
have a fitting weapon, combat, particularly against bosses, degenerates into you standing there whacking
at a monster 200 times in a row for next to no damage per hit, without the monster having a chance to do
anything back to you unless you screw up the very simple timing of your blows. That's not even getting
into the issues with how healing spells hurt your resistance to evil damage spells, leaving you pretty
frelled over if something casts one before you get to start whacking. I don't really have anything against
the plot per se, but it honestly seems pretty darn disconnected from the gameplay. So again, the day
they make Vagrant Story into a comic book so I can see that plot and art style without having to put up
with the unplayable game, I'll probably pick it up.

Lovie-dovie! Lovie-dovie! Stupid Grups!

Ok, despite weekend host Andrew wanting the
love-in-rpg letters postponed until his next column, I
decided to be mean and let you take care of my uh,
rage.
It is easy to see how love automatically craps up a
storyline. Spiderman sucked because of Mary Jane. Most
of the books I read end up sinking into a cesspool of
mushy crap that they term 'romance'. RPGs? Well, let's
count on our fingers the number of RPGs that had
'love' as its principle plot point.
....One. This RPG is known as Final Fantasy 8. I
know I'm not the only one who wanted to kill Rinoa by
the end of the game...blast her off into space and
forget rescuing her at all. At any rate, I can deal
with a little bit of love for the sake of plot
movement, or to appease the general audience, but when
it boils down to it--if you were traversing foreign
lands, beating up grotesque creatures, WOULD YOU SPEND
TIME THINKING ABOUT: a.) Your party member of the
opposite sex, b.) your party member of the same sex,
or c.) The next time you'd get time to think AT ALL?
Personally, I'd be thinking about exp. points and
gold, but that's just me being greedy.

Um, and you've been asked this before, but what
happened to the Ogre Battle contest? It's been....5
months, I believe!

~Kendra "Kingdom Hearts is Square's version of Crack"

Googleshng:
As a general rule I agree. There's far too many instances out there of the power of love bringing people
back to life if nothing else. Oh, and I don't really keep track of contests, that's what webmaster's for.

Quickies

CAN I DOWNLOAD ON DREAMCAST

Um, yes? Download WHAT is the question?

The Last Laugh:

Hmm.. OK, now there's some negative feedback on the weekend. Feel free to share thoughts on the matter
tomorrow, but ask real questions too.